


I called your name 'til the fever broke

by blackkat



Series: Harlequin Wars [4]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, F/M, Fluff, Harlequin, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:33:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25698880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackkat/pseuds/blackkat
Summary: “One month until the storm stops,” Styles observes, perfectly mild.
Relationships: Depa Billaba/CC-10/994 | Grey
Series: Harlequin Wars [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1862806
Comments: 12
Kudos: 248





	I called your name 'til the fever broke

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt: Rich hermit (think duke living in a tower on a lake island) gets a surprise guest in the middle of winter and there’s minimum two months to go before he can kick them out

“One month until the storm stops,” Styles observes, perfectly mild.

Grey doesn’t answer, doesn’t think he _can_. Depa and Caleb are coming down the tower’s stairs, laughing together, and if someone ordered Grey to look away with a knife at his throat, he would be able to obey. Not for anything in the kingdom.

Depa is wearing red and gold, and she looks like a vision in the cold hall, like an apparition that Grey would normally banish with a few sweeps of his sword. This one won't fade with the dawn, though, and it won't taunt him with every wrong, every poor choice, every lost soldier under his command.

Instead, Depa walks right through the ghosts and smiles at him, and Grey’s heart turns over in his chest. He thinks _maybe_ before he can catch himself, takes a step forward—

“Grey!” Caleb says, grinning. “We’re going dancing.”

“Are you?” Grey asks, amused, and offers Depa a hand down the last step even though she hardly needs it. Her smile is reason enough to do it, though, warm and a little mischievous, touched with a steady, unwavering recognition that makes something curl hot in his stomach. Her hand is warm in his, and she very deliberately doesn’t let go as she steps off the staircase.

“We are,” she says, and slants him a smile that’s all challenge. “Would you care to join us, Grey?”

Bemused, Grey looks her over, then Caleb. “And where exactly are you planning on dancing?” he asks. Depa's dress is at least thirty years out of fashion, which means their formal wear is likely a product of the tower’s closets. Grey hasn’t done more than glance at those since he moved in, since he’s hardly dressing for balls out in the middle of the mountain lake, but he’s not surprised the tower’s magic coughed things up for Depa the moment she considered wanting them.

Grey more or less feels the same, after all.

“The lakeshore,” Caleb says, and points towards the windows flanking the doorway. “See, the snow stopped for a bit.”

Startled, Grey turns to look, and—

That’s not supposed to happen. The storm is supposed to keep raging until the Wolf Star is gone from the sky, and then die away slowly. There’s another full month until then. Grey _knows_ ; he can feel the changes echo in his bones as the stars move.

The curse was specific. The storm lasts as long as the Wolf Star does. If it’s breaking—

But Depa and Caleb don’t know that. They can't. Grey breathes, and forces himself to focus, and smiles at Caleb instead of bolting to the locked room at the top of the tower.

“So it has,” he says, and tightens his grip on Depa's hand, pulling her close. Turns, one hand falling to her waist, and as she laughs he spins her around, takes two steps of a dance he hasn’t practiced in five years, and grins. “But who are _you_ going to be dancing with, Caleb?”

The roll of Caleb's eyes is obvious, but he doesn’t protest Grey stealing Depa away. “Styles will dance with me,” he says, and turns a wide-eyed, pleading look on Styles, who freezes like a deer caught in a dragon’s gaze. “Right, Styles?”

Depa snickers, executing another graceful turn and steering Grey towards the door. Smirking, he follows, spinning them in a tight loop and then dipping her dramatically, and she laughs as she goes, then reaches out and unbolts the door before Grey pulls her back to her feet with a flourish.

The burst of air that whirls in is freezing, cold enough to make Grey hiss through his coat, but Depa just pulls him on, out into the snow that lies in deep drifts around the base of the tower. There's a narrow path where Stance has shoveled just enough of a walkway for them to get out, and Depa doesn’t hesitate to take it, pulling Grey along with her as she laughs. He goes gladly, impossibly amused by the fact that she’s wearing her tall brown boots under the fancy gown, his chest aching but not like a wound. As soon as they're out of the deep drifts, he takes two quick steps and sweeps her up off her feet, lifting her up with a strength he’s tried to pretend doesn’t exist and spinning her past the imposing columns of the gate that’s stood open since she and Caleb washed up on the shore a month ago.

With a laugh, Depa wraps her arms around her shoulders, unconcerned by the show of strength, and when Grey sets her down on the frozen shore she reaches up and cups his cheek.

“A little break in the storm is nice every now and then, isn't it?” she asks, and there's a depth to her smile that Grey can't even begin to parse. He stills, caught by the touch of her hand, by the weight of the curse, and stares at her for a long moment.

Depa doesn’t seem offended by his lack of answer. She just shakes her head, still smiling, and then goes to pull away.

Desperation flares like a torch in the darkness, and Grey catches her before she can, pulls her right up against him. “Depa—” he starts, but—

Above the clouds, he can feel the Wolf Star, steady and burning. Can feel what’s waiting, just beyond the island, and—can't.

Depa leans up, pulling him down. Her lips are soft against his forehead, and Grey _aches_. Wants to save her from whatever drove her and Caleb here, wants to hunt it down and tear it to pieces, wants to stay at her side forever and a day.

“It’s all right, Grey,” she says gently, and maybe it’s madness, but just for a moment Grey really feels like it is.


End file.
